Budgeting
Your First Credit Card: What Builds a Score (and Wrecks It)
Your first card is not extra money, it is a tool for building a file lenders read for a decade. Here is how to use it without paying interest.
Money · Adulting · No Shame
Grow your money while you grow up.
Real talk about budgeting your first salary, dodging the mistakes everyone makes in their twenties, and building a life you don't need a vacation from. Written for young women starting their first job in the United States.
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Made for first salaries, first budgets, and first “wait, is this… mine?” moments.
Budgeting
How to Budget Your First Salary (Without Living Like a Monk)
Your first paycheck is exciting and terrifying at the same time. Here is the exact system to split it, so you can pay your bills and still say yes to brunch.
Mistakes
10 Money Mistakes Every Fresh Grad Makes (So You Can Skip Them)
Everyone makes these. You don't have to. The ten most expensive mistakes from the class that came before you, and the easy fixes.
“A budget is a permission slip, not a punishment.”— the entire Bloom & Budget philosophy
Beyond the budget
The career corner
Your salary is the biggest line in your budget, so the job hunt counts. All career posts →
Career
The Benefits Form You Fill In During Week One
Thirty days to make decisions that last a year. What a deductible really costs you, and why the 401(k) match is the raise nobody told you about.
Career
How to Ask for More on Your First Offer
Your starting salary is the number every future raise is calculated from. Here is how to ask once, politely, without losing the offer.
Career
Why Is It So Hard to Get an IT Job Right Now? (The Honest Answer)
200 applications, four interviews, zero offers. Here is what actually changed in tech hiring, the fake job posts to avoid, and what gets people hired.
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